Exalted

[buoyant summit]

Could I Perhaps See It?

[spiral cosmos]

The reason why the sword gains the grappling tag is because things get weird if you're being grappled otherwise on a sword only style

It doesn't really work

[bleak hazel]

new mentor, literally just a Maiden

[buoyant summit]

Aww F

lmao

[spiral cosmos]

ill see if I can find it in a bit

[buoyant summit]

Ballin

[velvet raft]

Honestly as Maiden Mentors go, Mercury seems decent

[wise ocean]

Aye, I just can't really figure out a good way to use Garda Talon even as someone with immense Sword Power

best I've been able to come up with is some speared boar struggle bullshit but
kind of explains itself

[prisma sun]

I'm gonna try and finish Sable Heart tomorrow I think

[buoyant summit]

Hell yeah!

[marsh garden]

i struggle to imagine tblades axes outside of like, claw cosplay shenanigans

but i do like them a lot for everything else

[prisma sun]

I just imagine troll warlord from Dota

[marsh garden]

oh you know what, fair

[fierce star]

What is a good like. ratio of charms in an MA (call it 11 charms long? I think that's about normal for an MA?) to have Terrestiral and Mastery effects?

[wise ocean]

Four?

[bleak hazel]

your traditional regular MA is 9 charms long, occasionally 10 with an E4 capstone

Crane is the only one I know by heart and has 5 mastery 4 terrestrial, so yeah, call it four of each, spread out

Throne Shadow, to pick a newer one, is 4 mastery 4 terrestrial

[fierce star]

ah, I overestimated how many charms, that's fair. Well it means fewer filler; I only have 5 out right now, to an E2 form. So I can probably do three coming off of that leading into an E3 capstone easy. Regardless, if 9 charms has 4/4... two of these should have a mastery and two of htese should hav ea terrestrial, roughly.

[marsh garden]

Even Blade has one terrestrial, one mastery in the generics

and then one terrestrial, one mastery in each of the schools' unique charms

except one which has two terra one mastery

Cerulean Lute has three mastery, four terrestrial

in its standard nine-charm

Hungry Ghost is 5/5 on a ten-charm tree

[fierce star]

As Needs Must
Cost: 4m. Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Perilous, Terrestrial
Duration: Scene-Long
Prerequisite Charms: None
Your backup is minutes away. Your steam-pack is out of charge. Your grenade pouch is empty. Time to get to work.

Make a melee attack using a steam or flame weapon. Light weapons use the statistics of a Baton, medium a Staff or Shield, and heavy a Sledge. For the rest of the scene as long as you are equipped with a steam or flame weapon, you are also considered to be equipped with an appropriately sized melee weapon. If your steam or flame weapon is an artifact, the melee weapon uses artifact traits as appropriate.

Terrestrial: Terrestrial users do not gain Artifact traits if their ranged weapon is an artifact weapon.

too much of a nerf for terrestrial?

[marsh garden]

honestly i'm not sure why it needs that as a terrestrial effect

it's effectively 4m for 5m

(artifact weapon discount)

the uh

[buoyant summit]

Is there a popular sword martial art trope that isn't already covered by an existing MA?

[marsh garden]

really concerning thing here is that it lets you make an unconditional reflexive attack

for 4m no wp

not that i can think of

[fierce star]

... If eel like that cost is wrong, hold one, this might be an older version where I slapped shit down as a first pass

[buoyant summit]

Even Blade has the interschool rivalries, VBoS the 'serene, cutting-edge deathdealer', Devil Prince the braggadocious bravo who delights in death by a thousand cuts, Steel Devil the dual wielding madman, and Single Point the 'it's over in one move' peerless mastery stuff

[marsh garden]

you have your animewank iaijutsu in SP, flying sword in tblades, virgil omnislash also in SP, devil-prince is all about swashbuckling bastardry with a cutlass and taking fingers

i guess gentleman fencing?

[bleak hazel]

I think we are missing John Greatsword from the High Isle trailer

[buoyant summit]

We are!

[fierce star]

I think for intent purposes it should be cahnged to supplement, and supplements an improvised weapon attack made as a melee attack with a flame ranged weapon?

[marsh garden]

dapper handsome prince (♀) with a rapier and a shoulder-cape

is an archetype that's missing

[buoyant summit]

distant sound of a boombox playing Separate Ways

[velvet raft]

“I’m not a great swordsman but I am a great fighter with a sword”

[fierce star]

I thnk rapiers are a little out of era for most of creation, but so are tallships, so.

[buoyant summit]

https://youtu.be/FeahzYGuIKY

[marsh garden]

there are also like four characters with rapiers

including the Lover

[buoyant summit]

🦢There's a God my Endings Sid is friends with who has a rapier

[marsh garden]

it's one of her aesthetic beats

[buoyant summit]

Though we as a system are admittedly partial to sabers, and moreso to sideswords

but

[velvet raft]

Also if you want Slightly Bulkier, Cuttier Rapiers those are just sideswords

[marsh garden]

that's just solar melee + resistance i think

[buoyant summit]

jinx

[bleak hazel]

Solar Melee is white bread + low quality margarine, it can be anything

I want big armoured bastard with grand daiklave

[marsh garden]

yeah, but this guy is just a very straightforward Hits You Real Good man

I'm The Juggernaut, Bitch is different from big bastardman with big bastardsword

but i do think we need a juggernaughtbitch.wav MA

[velvet raft]

I want a Realistically Insanely Agile Greatsword art

[buoyant summit]

While I agree with Topple's assessment of the High Isle knight in specific, I think Misc does bring up a good point

[fierce star]

okay, adjusted the wording and realized it was an old version

[marsh garden]

that's all about heavy armor wrecking balling

[fierce star]

As Needs Must
Cost: 6m. Mins: Martial Arts 2, Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Perilous
Duration: Scene-Long
Prerequisite Charms: None
Your backup is minutes away. Your steam-pack is out of charge. Your grenade pouch is empty. Time to get to work.

This charm supplements an improvised melee weapon attack made with a ranged weapon with the Flame or Steam tags. The stylist treats the ranged weapon as a melee weapon for the rest of the scene. Light weapons use the statistics of a Baton, medium a Staff or Shield, and heavy a Sledge. If your steam or flame weapon is an artifact, the melee weapon uses artifact traits as appropriate.

[velvet raft]

Oh, sword-and-dagger, Rhi

[fierce star]

does it need to treat artifact weapons as normal weapons by base? And then I could mastery it to treat them as artifact, I guess?

[buoyant summit]

A greatsword martial art that actually draws on the principles of greatsword use; formation fighting and space control

[marsh garden]

imo it's really hard to justify as a charm purchase if it's not doing all of that already

[buoyant summit]

Make your swings wide and your presence really fucking annoying to move through or around

[buoyant summit]

also true!

[velvet raft]

Greatswords are less formation weapons than they are specifically the weapons of champions

[buoyant summit]

I mean

in fiction, sure

But

[fierce star]

Hrm.

I worry I've made the charms too simple to warrant terrestiral-nerfing or mastery-buffing, then.

[buoyant summit]

Greatswords were literally made to be interspersed into pike formations on the battlefield, or as a bodyguard weapon to stand at chokepoints

[marsh garden]

not every charm in a tree needs terrestrial or mastery

[bleak hazel]

solar melee, if it has any aesthetic skew at all, is about parrying blows by the skin of your teeth and making flurries of 5000 elegant attacks in a row, whereas this guy is slamming guys around and punching and shrugging off a sword driven implausibly through his plate armour

[buoyant summit]

At least European ones, anyway

[fierce star]

well, no, but you should have some

[buoyant summit]

I mean tbf about that last point topple did bring up resistance

[marsh garden]

look, the other guy used a hardness-ignoring charm

[bleak hazel]

6m seems like a lot to get the ability to punch with your ranged weapon

[velvet raft]

There’s actually very little evidence for this!

[fierce star]

well it needs to be more than 5m because it's giving you a 'free' artifact wepaon?

at least that's the impression I got above

[bleak hazel]

only if you have an artifact weapon already

[marsh garden]

it's giving you artifact traits but you've already bought an artifact weapon

[velvet raft]

We have ample evidence of greatswords as the weapons of bodyguards and shock troops

[fierce star]

fair. Knock it bakc down to 4m?

[bleak hazel]

being able to parry at +1 with your medium ranged weapon is worth something, but it's most of the benefit here

[buoyant summit]

In fairness GK I did bring up their use by bodyguards

[velvet raft]

But the idea that they were used to cut into pike formations doesn’t really square with what we know about pikes

[marsh garden]

i think i would probably just like

instead of making it a scenelong

[bleak hazel]

could even argue for 3m, which is the cost of attuning a second artifact weapon after buying the charm that reduces successive weapon attunement costs

[marsh garden]

make it an instant-duration Supplemental charm that augments a bonk

and gives you a bonus on the hit and/or +parry for the round or something

[buoyant summit]

I mean I don't think they were made to cut through a goddamn pike shaft, but weren't landsknecht interspersing zweihander into their formations to have more weapon to work with once both formations got past the points of their opponents' pikes?

[marsh garden]

lets you make it more dynamic

[fierce star]

well, it's one of the starter charms for the style so I was aiming for something simple for it

[marsh garden]

hmm

on the one hand, understandable

on the other hand, i raise you all the Wacky Bullshit starter charms in other styles

[velvet raft]

AIUI landsknecht tactics were more about ambushes, flanking, and shock-and-awe

[fierce star]

And to put it another way I'm generally happy with the charm's mechanics (once properly worded so it's not a free reflexive attack lol) as it is

[marsh garden]

that's fair

[fierce star]

i"m baiscally looking for two charms to put a Terrestrial effect on, and two to put a Mastery effect on, and this one popped at me as an easy thing to Terrestrial (not let artifact ranged be artifact melee), but the consensus seems to be that's too much of a nerf?

[buoyant summit]

I could've sworn that while certain landsknecht did that a lot of them were just Good Pike & Shot Troops

[marsh garden]

Terrestrial is for "this shouldn't be available at the terrestrial level"

[buoyant summit]

I accept I may be wrong tho, I'm not a historian

[marsh garden]

but we see with things like elemental bolt attack that "limited artifact weapon generation" is within bounds for Terra

[velvet raft]

Nor am I, it’s possible I’m mistaken

But this is afaik

[buoyant summit]

But anyways, two good possibilities to explore

[fierce star]

Hrm

[marsh garden]

and "artifact traits contingent on an existing artifact at a 1-2m discount" seems pretty reasonable

[buoyant summit]

Greatsword & sword & dagger

[fierce star]

Well, my other charm effects are 'reflexive reload a ranged style weapon or ready one when you make a melee attack with a style weapon or unarmed', the above as needs must, 'ignore mobility penalty of armor for a movement action and gain that many bonus dice, non-charm if it's a rush' (terrestrial: these dice are not non-charm for rushes?), a withering attack supplemental that lets you attack another target in close range of the first (only gaining initaitive from teh highest damage dealt), and then the form charm which is a pretty generic 'list of buffs' form charm--negate mobiltiy penalties to evasion, reflexively ready style weapons 1/turn, flurry melee attacks adn defend other with no penalty, flurry ranged attacks and take cover with no penalty

[buoyant summit]

Hm

I admit I am more partial to doing a sword & dagger style, but

hm

[velvet raft]

Sword and dagger can really cover the whole spectrum of sword-and-offhand, too

Shields, cloaks, etc

[buoyant summit]

the fabled Scottish Highlander style

Hm

[buoyant summit]

would it be too much to let it work with 'Sai' flavored as parrying daggers?

Sai are knives but with disarming instead of thrown

[velvet raft]

That seems entirely reasonable

[marsh garden]

oh, do we have a sai stat block? wack

[buoyant summit]

Thinking of calling it 'regal fang'

After the fact the majority of the style's users are dual wielding, albeit weapons of differing lengths

[fierce star]

Blast and Cleanse
Cost: 6m, 1wp. Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 1
Type: Supplemental.
Keywords: Withering-Only, Perilous, Mastery
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Dare to Win, As Needs Must
Blast Cleaners are always outnumbered, and as such, are trained to make extensive use of their target-rich environments.

This charm supplements a Withering attack against a target in Close or Short range. After rolling the first attack, the stylist makes a second attack with the same weapon against another target within Close range of the first target. You only gain initiative from the highest damage dealt from either attack.

Mastery: The Stylish may make the second attack towards a target within Medium range of hte first target.

???

[marsh garden]

i have no idea how to price that, but seems reasonable i think?

close -> medium is uh

a fucking enormous jump, though

i'd just do +1 range band

whether close -> short or short -> medium

[fierce star]

oh I got close and short mixed up

yeah close to medium on msatery then

err

clsoe to short

YOu have to excuse me, literacy is difficult

[buoyant summit]

Debating if my sword & dagger style should give the normal dual wield bonus to clashes, or a defensive bonus

[marsh garden]

i think the form should give the DW clash bonus

but that other charms should probably care more about parry

[buoyant summit]

tru tru

[buoyant summit]

really fucked idea

but idk if it'd work that well

mmm, nvm it probably doesn't work that well

I had an idea about letting you sub in your Parry as what your opponent still needs to exceed in a clash but I doooon't think that'd actually be that good?

[marsh garden]

not sure static works, yeah

[buoyant summit]

snrk

This is fucked up and probably doesn't work

It's not suitable as an intro charm given how the form works, but

'fuck you my clash bonus applies to me parrying you this tick because my offhand is a parrying dagger.'

And of course

Form charm gives you the dual wield clash bonus for sword & dagger

'Suddenly my parry is 9.'

'The fuck?!'

[marsh garden]

as a charm that's effectively just +2 non-Charm Defense, which you'll have to price rather high

but it's definitely doable

[buoyant summit]

I mean it

wouldn't be non-Charm, no?

It would be the result of a Charm

[marsh garden]

it would if it applies your clash bonus

[buoyant summit]

Shite

[marsh garden]

since that's a non-Charm source of defense

+1 non-Charm Eva/Parry exists already though

with upside

(usually they're like 4m for +1 and upside, so pretty damn expensive, but still good)

so you'll want to figure out what bonuses, maluses, restrictions, or prices to give it for +2

[buoyant summit]

mhm mhm

Probably has the Terrestrial of 'not while Crashed lmao, eat shit'

[tulip folio]

I think you can price 'gets the existing dual wield clash bonus' a fair bit cheaper than non-charm bonuses there

As it inherantly doesn't stack

And can be replicated with just 'having 2 of the same weapon'

[buoyant summit]

Should it be an E2 or E3 charm?

[buoyant summit]

Cost: 3m, 1i; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 1
Type: Simple
Keywords: Uniform
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: -

Description

The stylist names a character she can perceive, naming them her Opponent. For the rest of the scene, whenever the Opponent attacks a target other than the stylist when they would otherwise be able to attack her, the stylist adds her Clash bonus to her next attack roll against the Opponent.
```This is too low-costed, right?

[velvet raft]

Proposing a WSAV condition of “with a sense of urgency” for ex-mortal game

[tulip folio]

Nameless Prosopagnosia
Cost: 5m, 1wp; Mins: Appearance 4, Essence 2
Type: Simple
Keywords: Psyche
Duration: One Story
Prerequisite Charms: Sobriquet Spinning Tongue
To know another's name is to be among friends. To know no names is to be alone even in a crowd.

The Wanderer strips knowledge of names from a character in medium range, rolling (Appearance + [Linguistics or Socialize]) against his Resolve.

An affected character finds that he cannot remember proper names and cannot identify people. The difficulty to remember a specific proper name becomes (3 + Wanderer's Essence) and characters without inhuman or supernatural senses cannot identify specific characters, no matter how distinctive they are. Characters with supernatural senses attempting to identify a character (Perception + Linguistics) to bring the name of a character to mind and identify them but otherwise all characters are shapeless strangers to them. A nontrivial character may spend 1 willpower to ignore this effect for a single action. Once a character has spent (Wanderer's Essence) willpower this way, the effect ends.

In combat, an affected character does not lose track of the position of his foes, allowing him to continue fighting them unless they achieve stealth or otherwise break visibility.

Keys:

Curse of Babel(Essence 3): An affected character cannot understand or speak any language.

Chaos in the Ranks(Essence 3): An affected battlegroup cannot benefit from Rally or Order actions. Its attacks affect all characters, not just foes and including itself.

[velvet raft]

reads up on the Division of Journeys omg they’re so cool

[velvet raft]

I think I’m gonna cut Maiden In The Pot from my list of planned charms

[fierce star]

Oh those keys are dirty, iki

appearance really is the Jackass Stat for wanderers ain't it?

[tulip folio]

100%. It's Naming.

And Naming is just kinda...inherantly really good at being a dickhead.

[fierce star]

my wanderer is going to be some flavor of high school mean girl

[tulip folio]

The big end point of Naming is their version of Pattern Spider Touch.

They get a lesser version of it earlier where you can inflict (mostly) cosmetic changes on people.

Letting you go Midsummer Night's Dream Puck

And turn Nick Bottom's head into that of a donkey.

Does it mechanically do a lot? I mean, it's gunna penalize some things.

But is it a problem? Oh yes

Manipulation in contrast is remarkably not-evil. That's not to say it's trustworthy.

But it's sneaky more in the way that a clever lawyer or the doctor is sneaky.

'I'm going to lie and manipulate and hopefully get you out of this alive'

Oath of Mistletoe
Cost: 5m, 1wp; Mins: Manipulation 4, Essence 2
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: 
There are none who doubt the power of a promise, with the world itself twisting to punish oathbreakers. Forging a pact with a fundamental concept, storms and blades alike shy away at doing harm.

The Wanderer forms a contract with a concept as broad as a speciality, such as 'Fire', or 'Bladed Weapons', representing the force that will attempt to not harm her. She gains the following effects when she would suffer harm from an effect covered by contracted concept:

  -Against Withering Attacks, she reduces the initiative she loses by 2. This does not change the amount the attacker gains.
  -Effects that would deal Lethal Damage or Aggravated damage downgrade the damage type one level (Aggravated to Lethal, Lethal to Bashing)
  -Once per session, the Wanderer may introduce a stroke of good luck, making a dramatic edit to reduce the danger she is in from environmental harm. A fire may fail to spread to the house she is in, or a key be found for a door just before the flames reach her.

This charm lasts until another pact is made. The Wanderer may never pact with Iron and objects of Iron do not downgrade their damage type.

Reset: Once per story.

Like manipulation gets stuff like 'Make the oath's baldr's mother made objects swear'

It's clever and manipulative but it's not 'I am here to be an asshole'

[wise ocean]

you have to wonder what happens if you try to make a pact with iron anyway

[tulip folio]

Iron: "Yeah, Nah. Stupid Fairy <Slur>"

Turns out Iron is really racist. It votes One Nation.

[fierce star]

manipulation focused wanderer who is but a simple country lawyer

Jekibi’s Plowing Charge
Cost: 4m. Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: As Needs Must
Much like the Dozer-Beasts that manifest around the Great Duct, a practitioner of Steam-And-Shine Refulgence style lets nothing stop them when it comes time to move.

This charm supplements any movement action. For that action, the stylist ignores the mobility penalty of their worn armor, and gains that many bonus dice for the action. If it is a Rush action, these dice are non-charm.

what if I added terrestrial to this to remove the rush non-charm bonus dice?

like you still get the bonus dice but they're charm

[tulip folio]

Seems fun

[fierce star]

(this is my mid take but I dislike terrestrial and mastery lmao)

so the first half of this style needs one more mastery tag, and one more terrestrial tag, and I don't really want to put either on the form

Dare to Win
Cost: 2m. Mins: Martial Arts 2, Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
Gremlins that survive the blasts of steam and the explosion of alchemical grenades inevitably meet their end at a Blast-Cleaner’s boot or the blunt end of their weapon. But there are always more targets to cleanse.


When the stylist makes an unarmed melee attack or a melee attack with a style weapon, they may reflexively ready a ranged style weapon or reload a ranged style weapon with the slow tag.

As Needs Must
Cost: 3m. Mins: Martial Arts 2, Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Perilous
Duration: Scene-Long
Prerequisite Charms: None
Your backup is minutes away. Your steam-pack is out of charge. Your grenade pouch is empty. Time to get to work.

This charm supplements an improvised melee weapon attack made with a ranged weapon with the Flame or Steam tags. The stylist treats the ranged weapon as a melee weapon for the rest of the scene. Light weapons use the statistics of a Baton, medium a Staff or Shield, and heavy a Sledge. If your steam or flame weapon is an artifact, the melee weapon uses artifact traits as appropriate.

which means one of these needs mastery and one needs terrestrial

[wise ocean]

you can put mastery and terrestrial on the same charm

a couple styles do this

[fierce star]

well, true

that is fair

[marsh garden]

you also don't need to hew to a certain amount of either

[bleak hazel]

it seems to be quite common with charms that are just numbers go up, since it's easy to say "number go up a bit more" or "number go up a bit less, or only in X situation"

and then there are certain things like extra attacks/reflexive clashes that get Terrestrial because of the general limit on action economy-bending at terrestrial tier

[fierce star]

You want about 4 of each across a 9 to 10 charm style, going by the vague gesturings towards style handbooks for design.

hmm, I probably could put terrestiral on the extra attack charm, it's just a question of how to nerf it

[marsh garden]

about, yeah

[fierce star]

Blast and Cleanse
Cost: 6m, 1wp. Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 1
Type: Supplemental.
Keywords: Withering-Only, Perilous, Mastery
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Dare to Win, As Needs Must
Blast Cleaners are always outnumbered, and as such, are trained to make extensive use of their target-rich environments.

This charm supplements a Withering attack against a target in Close or Short range. After rolling the first attack, the stylist makes a second attack with the same weapon against another target within Close range of the first target. You only gain initiative from the highest damage dealt from either attack.

Mastery: The Stylist may make the second attack against a target within Short range of the first target.

[marsh garden]

but like

it doesn't need to be exactly four of each

violet bier is a (The) division style

and while it has four terra tags, it only has two mastery tags

Live Wire is only three mastery, two terrestrial

[tulip folio]

I put...2 terrestial and 7 masteries...on Warlord. okay, I think warlord needs less mastery

[bleak hazel]

Live Wire does have pretty impactful tagging, despite not having many

[marsh garden]

oh, absolutely

so does vbos

but there aren't a ton of em

[bleak hazel]

VBOS is very light on Mastery and as such is basically my go-to for Lunars/Alchs

bit more Terrestrial

[buoyant summit]

VBoS is in fact goated

[marsh garden]

future strife's mastery is p ridiculous

and metal storm's terrestrial is mean

[buoyant summit]

hmm

[spiral cosmos]

i don't really like live wire much as a style unfortunately

[buoyant summit]

trying to figure out defensive tech for Regal Fang as a good pre-Form charm...

Oh, borb!

Did you ever find that Earth EB variant you made?

[spiral cosmos]

yeah, the flavor text isn't really done at all but mechanically it works

if you want it I can put it up

[buoyant summit]

Yes please!

[spiral cosmos]

okay, just a few mins

[fierce star]

Terrestrial you only gain the init from the lower damage roll, maybe?

[buoyant summit]

This is probably a post-Form charm but I've had an idea about buffing your full-defense?

Or

You know, maybe not post-Form?

idk

[fierce star]

oh, i was scrolled up

[fierce star]

in reference to this

my bad

[buoyant summit]

I think that Terrestrial sounds

Reasonable, if a bit mean

But

Terrestrial's a bit feckin mean tbh

XD

like in general

[fierce star]

yeah I dislike it but I'm trying to make this style fit within the Usual Design Space for a MA

okay. First half of the form needs one more Mastery.

[buoyant summit]

Cost: 2m; Mins: Martial Arts 2, Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Mastery
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: None

The duelist holds her weapons in a fluid dance of defense, her fangs like the iron bars of a mighty gate.

The stylist increases the Defense bonus of her Full Defense action by 1. If she is wielding a dagger or sai in her offhand, she increases it by 2.

Mastery: Using this Charm refunds the Initiative spent to make the Full Defense action.```How's this for a pre-Form charm?

Keyword should have Mastery there, shite

Also this should totally cost more actually, damn

[spiral cosmos]

Dead Mountain 
Onnyeong the Avalanche teaches that the blade is a hideous thing, and its unsheathing is the last resort of sword-arts. Once an infamous assassin who glorified her teacher Azure Crane, the Earth Aspect only teaches those who already understand the cost of killing —repentant criminals, survivors of violence, former soldiers, and the like. She is a brutal teacher, not cruel but without mercy in her training, which teaches students to fight defensively, withstand punishment, and win fights without drawing their blades in the first place. Her school is deeply antagonistic to Winter Songbird, defined by its starkly practical and anti-romantic philosophy.

Even Blade Form
Dead Mountain (Onnyeong the Avalanche): The stylist sheathes her sword, wielding it as a baton. She waives the Defense penalty of smash attacks, and attacks enhanced by Death Between Heartbeats add dice from aiming again as damage dice.```

Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 2
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Mastery, Uniform
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Even Blade Form (Dead Mountain)
Pain must not be avoided in the ascent, but embraced.
The stylist gains +1 Parry and (higher of Essence or 3) soak. If she successfully blocks or reduces it to minimum damage, she can reflexively aim against her attacker.
Mastery: This Charm’s duration becomes one tick.

Second Station: Cliff Breaks The Hand
Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 2
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Counterattack, Terrestrial, Withering-only
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Even Blade Form (Dead Mountain)
Accepting the pain of the ascent, lesser pains reveal opportunity.
The stylist makes a withering counterattack, adding (higher of Stamina or Resistance) raw damage dice. If this attack benefits from aiming and deals damage, the target’s next attack against the stylist inflicts no onslaught penalty. 
Terrestrial: This counts as the stylist’s action for the turn.

Third Station: Barren Summit
Cost: 8m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: Decisive-only, Mastery
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: First Station: Bitter Climb, Second Station: Cliffs Breaks the Hand
Here at the peak, you see: nothing but death awaited you. 
Special activation rules: This Charm can be used to enhance Second Station: Cliff Breaks the Hand as a supplemental Charm, making it a decisive attack.
The stylist makes an unblockable decisive smash attack, drawing her sword and granting it the Smashing tag. She adds (higher of Resistance or Strength) damage dice. Additionally, if she satisfies two of the following conditions, he suffers damage as if he experienced a short-range fall (Exalted, p. 232). If she satisfies all three, he suffers damage as per a medium-range fall.
•    The stylist’s attack benefits from aiming.
•    Her attack is a counterattack.
•    The victim is crashed or the stylist has Initiative 10+. 
All enemies within close range of the target when he falls prone must roll (Stamina + Resistance) against the stylist’s attack roll, or suffer three dice of unsoakable withering damage. 
Effects that prevent forced movement still work against this, but such is the blow’s power that they suffer the full damage anyway.
Mastery: If the shockwave crashes an enemy, she gains an Initiative Break as though she made a withering attack. This can only happen once per use.
Reset: Once per session.```

[buoyant summit]

Fuckin ballin

[spiral cosmos]

bonkstick

[buoyant summit]

So

I normally hate 'sword art defined by not drawing the sword'

But this is cool

[spiral cosmos]

Thanks

Figured it would defeat the point a little if you never drew it

Hence the capstone having you draw the sword

[buoyant summit]

Ahhhh

That was unclear to me so I thought this was just whalloping a motherfucker

[spiral cosmos]

ill tweak it

ok there

[buoyant summit]

Hell yeah

Also this is infinitely better and more sauced than my own very nascent Earth EB idea

Which was 'what if I made another two-handed stance based around B L O C K I N G'

[spiral cosmos]

b lo c c

I'd encourage you to write that if you wanna, this is just one possible take on an earth variant

[buoyant summit]

just a memory leaked mp3 of that one Terry Crews soundbite

Oh I probably will

I just need to make it s a u c e d

And also finish the current MA I'm working on

Could I interest you in looking at (and constructively tearing apart) it's two pre-form Charms and the Form itself?

[spiral cosmos]

i can take a look quickly

[wise ocean]

the evils of smash attacks... they're back... they've returned!

in all seriousness this looks cool

[buoyant summit]

Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 2, Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Mastery
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: None

The duelist holds her weapons in a fluid dance of defense, her fangs like the iron bars of a mighty gate.

The stylist increases the Defense bonus of her Full Defense action by 1. If she is wielding a dagger or sai in her offhand, she increases it by 2.

Mastery: Using this Charm refunds the Initiative spent to make the Full Defense action.
``````Satisfaction-Demanding Technique
Cost: 3m, 1i; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 1
Type: Simple
Keywords: Uniform
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: None

The stylist levels her weapon and bellows a challenge; her opponent dare not besmirch her honor and their own by attacking anyone else.

The stylist chooses a character she can perceive, naming them her Opponent. For the rest of the scene, once per round when the Opponent attacks a target other than the stylist when they would otherwise be able to attack her, the stylist adds her Clash bonus to her next attack roll against the Opponent. If her next attack roll against her Opponent is a Clash or if she has no Clash bonus, she adds one dice. 

She may use this Charm reflexively after rolling Join Battle. If her Opponent is defeated or otherwise exits the scene, she may designate a new Opponent using this Charm as a reflexive action.```

Cost: 7m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 1
Type: Simple
Keywords: Form
Duration: One scene
Prerequisites: Twinfang Defense, Satisfaction-Demanding Technique

The stylist assumes a low stance, weapons bared like the fangs from which the style takes its name.

The stylist gains the following benefits:

While she wields a straight sword or slashing sword in one hand she gains a +1 Clash bonus. If she wields a dagger or sai in her other hand, she gains a +2 Clash bonus as if she were wielding two of the same weapon. When engaged with a single opponent, this bonus is increased by 1.
The stylist does not lose Initiative delaying her turn if she does so to Clash with another target.
When her Opponent 

Special Activation Rules: When the stylist crashes her opponent with a withering clash, or increases her target’s wound penalty with a decisive clash, she may reflexively enter this Form.```

the Form is incomplete as I am trying to decide on a non-Clash effect because

All things goin in the clash basket is a non-starter most likely

[spiral cosmos]

before I read this, my basic feeling about where people go wrong with Even Blade variants tend to be that they overcomplicate it, in that the original four variants are all actually very straightforward with effects based around enhancing/expanding the use of the pre-Form Charms

and people want to do all kinds of crazy shit and go off into the weeds like this is my lightsaber sith even blade variant with fate-cutting effects when it's meant to be relatively simple

which is, admittedly, harder than complicated

[buoyant summit]

lol

That's not really my intent, I actually enjoy Even Blade for it seeming, despite its definite anime bullshit

Like sort of 'the peak of mortal swordsmanship'?

I know that's not what it is but I struggle to word it differently

[spiral cosmos]

doesn't seem applicable to what you have

[buoyant summit]

Oh

This is not an Even Blade variant

[spiral cosmos]

🗿 o

[buoyant summit]

This is a whole cloth MA I'm making

[spiral cosmos]

well. no wonder it's not applicable

[buoyant summit]

l

m

a

o

[spiral cosmos]

good job ! you didn't make a mistake relevant to a thing you weren't doing !

this is like an agro tank style right?

[buoyant summit]

XD

Pretty much?! I didn't expect to go that direction with 'sword & dagger dueling style' but

yeah!

[wise ocean]

it reads as wanting to yoink everyone's attention so you bounce them off your giga noncharm defense boost, yeah

with what you have here

[buoyant summit]

Kinda yeah

'You!'

'You are my next opponent!'

'Wh-'

slaps with glove 'FIGHT ME!'

very The Duellists (1977) and Count of Monte Cristo

[spiral cosmos]

my first thoughts are that Twinfang Defense probably wants another effect instead of just +1 parry, because while that's effective it's kind of very inert, it's not doing much tactically. a way to integrate it more directly into the clashing theme (ik it has the dagger clause) or whatever other part of the gameplay loop is there would be good

Satisfaction-Demanding Technique is probably mathematically worth the cost while in the Form and dual wielding but outside of it i'm not sure it really is worth it - keying the effect off of the clash bonus is probably worse than just giving a mathematical floor. i think you want another way to get at the idea, like making it work into the Form or taking a note out of Laughing Monster style's Deeper-Into-Trouble Technique (or perhaps Weeping Maiden Strike in CLoH?. this is probably the thing that's going to be hardest to handle from a design perspective, because it makes you better at hitting people who hit your friends (which is good), but it needs to either be good at that, or serve as a reason to make people hit you.

i think the Form giving a clash bonus is good, but as a mechanic clash bonus is kind of niche. the Form wants to be feeding other powers, like ways to generate clashes - you have that already in the not-losing-Initiative clause, but it's worth thinking about what other ways you have to generate clashes at the e1 suite, like something to boost your Initiative, defend other into a clash (!?), yadda yadda

this is kind of hard to do in an e1 suite, because all the clash-generation tech is normally Celestial native suite-e1 only and willpower gated in some capacity. so you gotta really use all your tools to make forcing clashes part of (though it can't be all of) a viable gameplay loop at e1

that's a lot of feedback but with that said i think this is fun and i like the yelling beast and fangs imagery, feels like something a Lunar made

maybe there's some fun synergies you can find in the Lunar set

hope that's helpful @buoyant summit

[buoyant summit]

Super helpful, thank you! 😊

[spiral cosmos]

we ended up doing something kind of similar in Agents, honestly

[buoyant summit]

FUCK! >XD

[spiral cosmos]

no, not super similar dw

just like, a charm that's a full defense/action-delayer, that next turn serves to boost your Initiative, as part of a style that softly enjoys clashes

all it means is that this kind of thing is something i've had to consider and find a way to incorporate

[buoyant summit]

Honestly given how someone in the fancord went 'this feels like if White Reaper really fucking hated single targets' you might not be far off <XD

[buoyant summit]

This is maybe fucked up, but what if the form included the defend other into clash idea?

[spiral cosmos]

feels like you'd need to build defend other into the base e1 suite

your benchmark here for reflexive counterattacks in the form are laughing monster and crane but clashing is inherently stronger than counterattacking

[buoyant summit]

mhm mhm

[spiral cosmos]

charm design is like case law tbh. you find the closest thing to what you're doing, steal what you can, adjust against best benchmarks, go shopping through the mass of bs to find things you can lift

[buoyant summit]

yep yep

[spiral cosmos]

less about memory than knowing how and where to look

[buoyant summit]

Deeper-Into-Trouble does feel

kind of exactly in that provocator space

[fierce star]

hmm.

Jekibi’s Plowing Charge
Cost: 4m. Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Terrestrial
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: As Needs Must
Much like the Dozer-Beasts that manifest around the Great Duct, a practitioner of Steam-And-Shine Refulgence style lets nothing stop them when it comes time to move.

This charm supplements any movement action. For that action, the stylist ignores the mobility penalty of their worn armor, and gains that many bonus dice for the action. If it is a Rush action, these dice are non-charm.

Terrestrial: Terrestrial exalted do not convert the bonus dice for Rush actions to non-charm.

what if I also gave this mastery and made the mastery 'all movement actions recieve non-charm bonus dice'?

[buoyant summit]

Cost: 3m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Dual
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: None

The stylist strikes like a precocious beast, demanding her chosen foe rise to her, and only her, challenge.

The stylist adds 2 damage dice to her damage roll, 3 if her attack is made as part of a Clash. A damaged opponent rises to her challenge. If he attacks her before or on his next turn and crashes or incapacitates her, he is buoyed by his victory and gains 2 bonus dice his next attack after that. However, he suffers a -3 penalty on attacks against anyone else this scene until he hits her and can’t gain the bonus to his attack if he attacks another character first.
```Charms-as-Case-Law Moment

[bleak hazel]

half your crash bonus is only ever going to be 1 or 2, so that can be simplified for sure

[buoyant summit]

...true

Shite

Chaaaaanged

Also changed the verbiage of the bonus to make Exalted Sense, i.e. two bonus dice

[buoyant summit]

Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 2, Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Mastery
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: None

The duelist holds her weapons in a fluid dance of defense, her fangs like the iron bars of a mighty gate.

The stylist increases the Defense bonus of her Full Defense action by 1. If she is wielding a dagger or sai in her offhand, she increases it by 2.

If she successfully parries an attack made against her, her next attack against that target gains bonus dice equal to half the difference between her Defense and her opponent’s successes, rounded up.

Mastery: Using this Charm refunds the Initiative spent to make the Full Defense action.```

[buoyant summit]

Funny thing I just realized about this EB variant; it fully synergizes with Swaying Grass Dance save for its capstone charm

Which I think is cool as fuck

I am realizing how hard it's going to be to integrate full defense tech and clash tech

into a single style

Fuck™

[buoyant summit]

Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 2
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Withering-only
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: Satisfaction-Demanding Technique, Regal Fang Form

The martial artist reminds her opponent that his quarrel is with her, and her alone.

If an enemy within close range of the stylist attacks one of her allies, she may reflexively make a withering clash attack against that enemy. On hit the stylist does not roll damage, but the target loses Initiative equal to (Essence or 3, whichever is higher). This attack can be supplemented by Satisfaction-Demanding Technique, adding the bonus damage dice to the Initiative lost by the stylist’s target.```

[prisma sun]

Realized I can give Sable Heart the Thousand Blades special from YOMI HUstle

[velvet raft]

Pleased with this:

Iconic Anima: The rich yellow flames of Lanying’s anima branch into a geometric network of golden paths, leading down from a semicircle of distant, opalescent mountains with snow-white caps. As the paths descend they converge, until they have all met and arrived exactly where Lanying is standing. As she moves, the path continues to form in front of her — the only destination that all of her journeys could have brought her to.

[buoyant summit]

What do you mean by this lol

[mighty rover]

https://bsky.app/profile/thaliarchus.bsky.social/post/3mlw4n5ui7r2h

Thaliarchus (@thaliarchus.bsky.social)

For your mental health, you should descend upon the land, none being able to withstand you, and scatter its greatness to the four winds. I'm saying you should get out there and sea people.

Bluesky · May 15, 2026, 7:59 PM

[buoyant summit]

annoyed golf clap at the pun

[prisma sun]

Cost: -; xm 
Mins:; E4, Martial Arts 5
Type: 
Keywords: 
Duration: (Essence) Turns
Prerequisite Charms:

Refusing to face the pain of loss, the user separates themselves from the world with a hail of blade strokes, creating a space around them that contains naught but the blade. Only then will they be safe, alone and untouched. 

The user creates an Environmental Hazard of blade strokes in an area up to Close Range, dealing (1+Essence) Lethal Damage with a Difficulty of 6, requiring an appropriate (Dex+Melee/Martial Arts) roll to parry the blows. Anyone who takes damage from the environmental hazard suffers an Onslaught penalty equal to the damage taken that does not refresh at the beginning of their turn unless they manage to move out of the hazard. ```

[buoyant summit]

Ballin

[prisma sun]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxV_0g_tV5k

[velvet raft]

Gotta think of a limit trigger

[prisma sun]

Mins:; E4, Martial Arts 5
Type: 
Keywords: 
Duration: (Essence) Turns
Prerequisite Charms:

Refusing to face the pain of loss, the user separates themselves from the world with a hail of blade strokes, creating a space around them that contains naught but the blade. Only then will they be safe, alone and untouched. 

The user creates an Environmental Hazard of blade strokes in an area up to Close Range, dealing (1+Essence) Lethal Damage with a Difficulty of 6, requiring an appropriate (Dex+Melee/Martial Arts) roll to parry the blows. Anyone who takes damage from the environmental hazard suffers an Onslaught penalty equal to the damage taken that does not refresh at the beginning of their turn unless they manage to move out of the hazard. 

If the user is wielding a Heartblade, the Hazard instead deals Aggravated damage. 

Limit: Once Per Scene, however the duration is refreshed whenever the user successfully defends against an Instill roll. 

Enlightenment: If the user is wielding a Heartblade, the area of the hazard extends (level of intimacy) range bands. ```

This seem fair?

[buoyant summit]

To me I think this is fine, ye

Homebrew balancing question

are full defenses and aim actions

roughly equivalent in terms of value when tacked onto charms?

[bleak hazel]

FD is rather stronger, since Aim at base is +3 NCD on one attack, full defence is +2 noncharm parry (so the equivalent of 4 dice) on every attack against you for the rest of the round

[buoyant summit]

Mhm, mhm

[bleak hazel]

FD also triggers stuff like Crane Form and Prismatic Bulwark's various riders that are inherently quite strong because FD is not available reflexively like Aim is

whereas something like Sid Melee has reflexive aim tech and then a bunch of while-aiming riders without going overboard

[buoyant summit]

Okay, would the value be the same if it gave you the noncharm parry against the single next attack to target you?

I'm trying to puzzle out how to fit a piece a defensive tech into the MA I'm making based around 'no, you attack me'

[bleak hazel]

what, without actually being a Full Defence and thus triggering Crane instinct mode? it would be slightly more valuable in pure stat terms, since 2 def is 4 motes and 3 attack dice is 3 motes (ignoring the fact that they're both non-charm)

but reasonably close

[buoyant summit]

Yes, without it being a Full Defense

Not that this MA is compatible with Crane

Actually, would that change the calculus? This MA isn't compatible at all with Crane afaik

[bleak hazel]

it would change it a bit but not by much, since a round-long FD is just worth a lot more than an Aim and you can finagle pseudo-compatibility in a few ways with FDs because the things that trigger off them don't care what you used to do the full defence, just whether you are full defending at the time

[buoyant summit]

tru tru

[bleak hazel]

of course it depends on the cost of this effect, what exactly it does and how many prereqs it has, but if it's a cheap+cheerful early charm I would stick with flurrying FD, not making it reflexive in some way

[buoyant summit]

I am intending on making it a piece of initiative tech ala VBoS and Even Blade

Cost: 5m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 2, Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Mastery
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: None

The duelist holds her weapons in a fluid dance of defense and attack, her fangs like the iron bars of a mighty gate.

The stylist adds (Presence) to her effective Initiative to determine when she takes her turn. For a one-Willpower surcharge, she can reflexively increase her Parry by 1, or by 2 if wielding a dagger or sai in her offhand, against the next attack to target her.

If she then delays her turn to Clash with an opponent, she adds (Presence/2) bonus dice on a withering Clash, or her effective Initiative value thanks to this Charm becomes her actual Initiative value for a decisive Clash.```

[tulip folio]

Pondering a martial arts charm. Basically a defensive version of Wood Dragon's soul tracking. You tag a guy and get boosted defences against him for the duration.

[tulip folio]

Titan Baffling Bushwhack
Cost: 3m, 2i; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 2
Type Supplemental
Duration: Instant 
Prerequisite Charms: Ram Form

This supplements a Decisive Attack or Gambit. As long as the attack deals damage or the gambit's initiative roll succeeds, the stylist attunes to the movements of her foe, easily keeping to his blind spots. She gains the benefits of Light Cover against him for the scene. This is increased to Heavy Cover against ranged attacks or the attacks of Tyrants.

Provisional version

[buoyant summit]

This seems extremely funny

in a good way to be clear

Uh

[buoyant summit]

what's the rest of the MA like?

[tulip folio]

It's a sling based martial art with a focus on gambits and fucking up big guys

[buoyant summit]

Ahhh

[tulip folio]

Ringing Shepherd's Bell
Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 1
Type: Simple
Keywords: Decisive-only
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
The sound of a tyrant's fall echoes far and wide.

The Stylist makes a difficulty 3 gambit to stagger an enemy. If she succeeds, he suffers one level of bashing damage, is knocked Prone and suffers a –2 crippling penalty on rolls until the end of his next turn.

For example

Bonk, rock to head, down you go

[fierce star]

Bonke

[buoyant summit]

🦉Over half this MA is clash charms and I don't think that's healthy AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[marsh garden]

yeah, you only really need one clash charm to make a Clash Martial Art

and make it the best in the game

as seen by snake

[buoyant summit]

well

one of the charms just gives you a bigger bonus of the type it gives if you're using it to Clash so

At least that's something..

I think the thing I need to remember is

You can use normal attack Charms on clashes

[spiral cosmos]

another charm....

Cost: 6m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 2, Essence 3
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Clash, Perilous
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
Reflect upon your true nature, for it is the only lie you are beholden to.

The stylist can use this Charm when she would be effected by illusory or mind-altering effects: Psyche or Shaping (Mind) magics, hallucination-inducing vapors, phantasmagorical vistas, etc. It can be used against attacks (which counts as a clash) and social influence, but only if they rely upon illusory images or deluding her that something is real. She rolls (Wits + Martial Arts) against an enemy’s roll with a free full Excellency, or against a difficulty of the Storyteller’s choosing, usually difficulty 5. If the stylist has any negative or nihilistic Intimacies towards herself, she adds (Intimacy) non-Charm successes also.

This Charm can also be used to cure characters of the above effects with a touch. Doing so can be crueler, however: their life flashes before their eyes as it truly was, not how they remember it being. Subject to this intolerable recollection, they must immediately roll (Willpower) dice and lose temporary Willpower equal to their successes. If this drains them of Willpower, they become incapacitated.```

[velvet raft]

Thinking about delaying Feathered Cloak Trick for Motion of Myriad Legs. On the one hand: punches. On the other hand: bird.

[velvet raft]

@buoyant summit Old defining intimacy, pre-exaltation vs. new version, post-exaltation

Someone needs to stop me from making paladins all the time

[fierce star]

but paladins are cool

[buoyant summit]

Man™

Making an MA is fucking hard

[velvet raft]

Yes

[tulip folio]

Yeah. I've done it a few times but every time I do there's some amount of 'oh, I really need to sit down and Think About Things'

[buoyant summit]

I wanted to make the first charm a piece of initiative tech that interacts with the fact this MA is Built To Clash, but

I tried to make it based on Future Strife or Breath-and-Essence Control and that just makes the math too cracked <XD

Cost: 5m (+1wp); Mins: Martial Arts 2, Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Withering-only
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: None

The duelist’s fangs are ever at the ready, eager for the taste of the savagely beautiful dance of death.

The stylist rolls Join Battle twice, taking the higher of the two results. Any Charms she uses must be paid separately for each roll. If she wins Join Battle and delays her first turn, she may pay a 1-Willpower surcharge to gain (Presence/2) Initiative instead of losing 1.
```I Am Aping Fire Dragon Now Instead

[velvet raft]

Opted to delay Feathered Cloak Trick for Becoming the Wilderness

It’s got less oomph but it fits the vibes better

[bleak hazel]

the moment I got that charm I started spamming it basically all the time because Bird Mode is ludicrously useful for all things

so enjoy your delayed gratification when you finally pick it up

[buoyant summit]

still not over you airdropping out of the sky and chopping that guy's head off

[velvet raft]

Right now my charms are collectively for fighting, guiding, and healing

[bleak hazel]

unfortunately for their tarpits they did not have sky zombies

[velvet raft]

Also probably going to immediately get a chance to use Greater Sign of Mercury

As we exalted with a trail of 12,000 soldiers behind us

[buoyant summit]

The rest of your Circle is a broken one of Solaroids, right?

two Solars, an Abyssal, and an Infernal?

one of em has a dead gf who should've been the fifth?

[marsh garden]

yeah, missing the night (day) caste

[velvet raft]

Three solars and an infernal

[buoyant summit]

O

[velvet raft]

Three solars, an infernal, and a journeys walk into a bar

[mighty rover]

the lunar ducks

[velvet raft]

We do know a probably-lunar

[bleak hazel]

you evidently need to go to a variety of different places now so that GSOM has a wider range of places to go

I suppose with your circle "port to Heaven" is not as convenient as it might be normally

[velvet raft]

Ye

I ended up with Yellow Path as one of my starting charms for this reason, though

Double-speed sand-skiff

[buoyant summit]

As a sidenote, I have figured out a cool reason why the MA I'm making is both made by Lunars and so honor-duel focused

Pre-Usurpation Lunars taking advantage of the Fae's need for dramatis personae and climactic events which drive emotions high to feast upon

And what's more of an emotional high than the stakes of a duel to the death?

[marsh garden]

i quite like that

[buoyant summit]

Does the Realm have a particular opinion on the practice of White Reaper, since iirc that was very famously made by Ma-Ha-Suchi?

[marsh garden]

i don't actually think that's the case in 3e

he doesn't even know white reaper in 3e

at least in his stat block

[buoyant summit]

Huh

interesting

[spiral cosmos]

3e lore just kinda de-lunarized White Reaper in flavor text which imo was kind of a shame

I like there being an association of some kind

Indirectly at least

[marsh garden]

that's unfortunate, yeah

...are there any martial arts that a lunar explicitly made in 3e?

none of the ones in Lunars or MFS say that lunars made them, laughing monster was explicitly a stolen fae style

[buoyant summit]

Language and metaphors in the most ancient surviving treatises on the style suggest it holds its origin in the warriors of the Lunar host, the nameless masters’ boasting of their victories over great raksha in single combat interspersed between descriptions of techniques and more practical thoughts on the style’s applications.

Treatises housed in the dojos and dueling academies of Realm satrapies and Shogunate Successors, Immaculate monasteries, and even many of the libraries of the great Yu-Shan lack these characteristics, suggesting an effort to dull the style’s association with the Anathema.``` I have finished Regal Fang's flavor text

[buoyant summit]

I bet this has been asked a billion times before but has there been a case of an Exaltation you don't directly inherit like being a Deeb

passing to a descendant regardless?

[bleak hazel]

it's the kind of extremely implausible thing that happens to PCs at irritating frequencies

[buoyant summit]

What I Suspected

[bleak hazel]

we do have some canon related celestials, there's a Solar who was related to a Sidereal and was tipped off about the Usurpation by her

[tulip folio]

But was too dumb to actually survive. XD

[buoyant summit]

That's an ouch

[buoyant summit]

Oh yeah that guy

tbh I get it

[bleak hazel]

wording vaguely suggests that she's still alive, which would be an interesting gold faction elder source

[buoyant summit]

I, too, would go insane presumably being alone and knowing the only reason I live being the fact I don't share the fate that befell my fellows thanks to my sister, Member of the Fate Cops Who Killed My Fellows

[bleak hazel]

"at this moment, Violet Pearl invented Witness Protection"

[buoyant summit]

And eventually want out even knowing it would result in my eventual death

I am with this nameless Solar on this one actually

XD

[bleak hazel]

he then died to the Ten Thousand Dragons, which is extremely easy to do but still a skill issue when you have an artifact that busted

[tulip folio]

Makes a note for my Sid to at some point refer to it as 'Witless Protection'.

[buoyant summit]

I mean

He had to get lucky every time

They had to get lucky once

and had, rather famously

Eponymously in fact

10,000 chances to get lucky

[bleak hazel]

more like 25000, "ten thousand dragons" is using it in the Chinese sense of "myriad, very large but unspecified number"

[buoyant summit]

Then their odds are even fucking better lmao

[bleak hazel]

it is however, an incredibly cool line

[buoyant summit]

It goes extremely fucking hard

[dense verge]

Enough Dragons To Go Around

[buoyant summit]

Which Makes It A Shame They're The Baddies

I know it's more complex than that, but like

[bleak hazel]

they are only doing more imperialism than anyone else because they just can't stop collecting all these Ws

[buoyant summit]

PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

[wise ocean]

there sure do be some... large number of dragons. a thousand? no, more. a hundred thousand? no, that's an implausible number of dragons. perhaps... approximately on the order of ten thousand dragons.

[bleak hazel]

an adequate number of dragons (to rule the world)

[buoyant summit]

Midge Ure plays on a jukebox in the background

[dense verge]

everybody wants to rule the world, after all

[wise ocean]

the raksha have sold the world at a very reasonable price because there's infinite other world to go around

[bleak hazel]

the Bronze Faction is perhaps the only stereotypically conservative faction in anything that I've ever gone "damn, these guys seem to have a pretty undeniable point" about

[wise ocean]

three cowries and a needle

[buoyant summit]

Fuck wait that's Tears for Fears

SHIT

[bleak hazel]

The Man Who Sold The World is very clearly Chejop Kejak's theme

[dense verge]

it's the bowie original for him

[buoyant summit]

He is extremely that-coded

Yes

[dense verge]

he's too old for the covers

[wise ocean]

well that's just because he can do gazely stares at himself, it's cheating

[bleak hazel]

while I am aware the 3e version of Chejop is no longer the UberSidereal that he was in 2e and as such is likely to lose, I still really want to see a Chejop/Rakan final showdown

real old master duel hours

[buoyant summit]

The pre-climax of every TMNT story where Shredder beats the shit out of Master Splinter

[bleak hazel]

also I want to know what CK's Meditative Battlefield Escalation is because everyone loves a domain expansion

[buoyant summit]

Also may I receive

Critique

of the revision of the first charm for my MA I am making?

[bleak hazel]

I think he could at least manage a Master Oogway

[bleak hazel]

sure, although I am about to go to bed

[buoyant summit]

Cost: 3m (+1wp); Mins: Martial Arts 2, Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Withering-only
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: None

The duelist’s fangs are ever at the ready, eager for the taste of the savagely beautiful dance of death.

The stylist doubles 9s on Join Battle and adds one die if she is fighting a single nontrivial opponent. If she wins Join Battle and delays her first turn to act at the same time as an enemy, she may pay a 1-Willpower surcharge to gain (Presence/2) Initiative instead of losing 1.

[bleak hazel]

(nearly had an interesting collision of slang there because "Crash out" now means both "honk shoo mimimi" and the other thing)

[buoyant summit]

lol

[dense verge]

rakan vs chejop is decided by whichever faction the PCs are currently backing, their rep loses so they get the boss afterward

[bleak hazel]

extremely good charm, since it's basically the first Infernal JB charm with a situational 1wp for 5i function integrated

none of the individual parts seem out of budget, but the combination of the two does make me want to bump it up to 4m just so there's a bit of opportunity cost

would dip for, since it doesn't care about compatibility

(also it's "instead of losing 2")

[buoyant summit]

right right

[bleak hazel]

unsure on how JB tech varies between splats and whether this needs terrestrial/mastery since it's a sidegrade to a Solar-tier charm with an extra bit

and I am too sleepy to do comparisons now

[fierce star]

Unlimited Steam Works
Cost: 25m, 1wp. Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4.
Type: Simple
Keywords: Perilous, Mastery, Terrestrial, Decisive, Aggravated.
Duration: Instant

The Martial Artist makes a Decisive attack against every enemy out to Short range, splitting his initiative as evenly as possible among the targets. This attack always deals Lethal damage. Against Enemies of Fate and Creatures of Darkness, it instead deals Aggravated. If this is performed in a Blight Zone, Shadowland, or Wyld Zone, the environmental effects of the area are ignored by everyone for the rest of the scene.

Terrestrial: This attack only reaches out to Close range.
Mastery: This charm permanently renders a blight zone, shadowland, or wyld zone normal instead of only for the rest of the scene.

Fiddling with a martial arts capstone

[bleak hazel]

Alch JB booster seems broadly worse than Joy In Violence Approach, since it's reroll 1s and a tiny bit of init gain for 3m, but you can submodule it to reroll 2s and do other stuff, so... no idea, alchs are weird

Sids don't have any join battle boosters, Lunars just get double 9s and a stat-swap for 3m so you're in-line there except for the WP part

I think you're good at 4m

[buoyant summit]

Terrestrial: Fuck you, subtract 2 from the Init you gain

<XD

[bleak hazel]

I'm inclined to put this down as "deebs can have nice things as a treat"

[buoyant summit]

Very fair

The other charm this apes from is the opening of Fire Dragon as well

Wait no

It used to do that

then I changed it to double 9s, not rolling twice

muh brain

[bleak hazel]

the opening JB charm on fire dragon is quite sad, so that's probably a good idea

spend motes to spend motes

[buoyant summit]

God what if the mastery is 'if you hit a decisive clash on your first turn after using this Charm and increase wound threshold, gain a willpwer'

[tulip folio]

...do any martial arts have good JB boosters? I know there's a bad JB booster in Golden Janissary.

[wise ocean]

well, everything in GJ is really quite bad and then becomes good when it's against doomoids, which I think where-is-doom falls into

otherwise: sfs

sfs is the gold standard jb booster

I think snake also has one

[bleak hazel]

despite not actually being a join battle booster

I don't recall one in Snake but I could be wrong

[tulip folio]

sfs?

[wise ocean]

ah, I was misremembering the bit that lets you deal more damage if you are going first

[wise ocean]

secrets of future strife, vbos

[tulip folio]

Ah, right

Though sofs isn't join battle, I don't think?

It's a boost to when you go

[wise ocean]

as misc alluded to, it doesn't actually do anything for JB, The Roll For Initiative, but it's great for JB, Making Sure You Go Before Everybody

[tulip folio]

Fair

[buoyant summit]

Is Clash as a mechanic too good to base a martial art around?

Cuz so far all of this style's so far 4 charms is 'yo lmao Clashing is awesome'

[tulip folio]

I don't think it's too good but martial arts are rarely about a Single Thing.

Like even Crane, the Counterattack Style doesn't have all it's charms be 'Oh yeah, I love counterattacking'

[buoyant summit]

hhhhhfuck...

well the theme is dramatic dueling and defending others (not the action itself necessarily) so I likely need to look at ways to expand it via the latter theme

[bleak hazel]

Crane has four counterattacking charms, counting the form, and a damage booster that goes well with them

Crossed Wings Denial, Crane Form, Mournful Crane's Cry, Wisdom of the Celestial Crane

oh wait, five, Feather-Stirred Arrow Deflection is only applicable to counterattacks

so half clashes and clash accessories and half other stuff seems to be vaguely in line

[buoyant summit]

are any of the pre-form Crane charms not counterattacks or counterattack accessories?

[bleak hazel]

one of them is a withering damage booster and one of them is a Defend Other charm, there's no counterattacking stuff before the Form at E2

[buoyant summit]

Gotcha

Is there literally any world in which Honorless Knave Chiding (that defend-other-esque clash we discussed in the fancord) is a pre-form charm or is that like

mandatorily a post-form, E2 charm

Honestly nevermind, either way it's healthier as an E2 charm

Should I just make a pre-form defend other charm...

[bleak hazel]

Reflexive clashes are functionally always E2+ charms because of how strong getting to declare your clash after the enemy attack charms is

[buoyant summit]

truuuuuueeeeee...

[bleak hazel]

usually E3 if they're full damage decisive clashes

[buoyant summit]

I will admit one of the reasons I'm hesitant to make a defend other charm is then it gets comparisons to Crane

More than it has already received by you, top, Iki, and some people on the fancord

Which make me worry it feels redundant?

idk it's probably nothing to lose sleep over

[bleak hazel]

The other counter-heavy style is Laughing Monster, the specific emphasis of which is something I can't remember off the top of my head, so you may want to look there also

Does a bunch of things at once

[buoyant summit]

oh yeahhhh

I stole the scaffolding of Satisfaction-Demanding Technique from it

[tulip folio]

Laughing Monster's got really common counters but they're very small ones.

The form lets you counter if someone misses you

But the counter only deals damage based on how much init they lost missing you.

[buoyant summit]

reads flowing water defense WHAT THE FUCK???!!!

[spiral cosmos]

hehe

[buoyant summit]

I have immediately made 'Flowing Water Defense but with Defend Other instead' for Regal Fang btw

[velvet raft]

Fire Dragon

[wise ocean]

is fire dragon actually good
that's a lot of motes

[velvet raft]

I think it depends on how much you've gotta spend on your Join Battle rolls to begin with

If you're, say, a mid-essence Sid with Becoming the Wilderness active? It absolutely slaps

[buoyant summit]

The stylist gains 1 Initiative if she makes a Clash attack after delaying her turn.

When wielding a knife or sai in her offhand, the stylist calculates her sword’s accuracy as though it were a Light weapon of the same quality.

If the stylist took the Defend Other action on her previous turn, she may pay 3 motes to reflexively do so again, with a Defense of (Presence/2), increased by 1 if she is wielding a knife or sai in her offhand.
```Is this too good as a Form charm?

[velvet raft]

Conversely if you're a solar and you're already spending 10 motes on extra dice for your JB? Probably not

[coral wraith]

yeah, SVN has Inspiring Battle Hymn

it's not amazing, but it applies to everyone and has riders on top

[marsh garden]

granting willpower is pretty amazing tbh

lets you spend wp on one of the juicy JB boosters for free

[buoyant summit]

Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Perilous
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: None

The stylist can flurry a Defend Other action with an attack, ignoring the Defense penalty for flurrying.

If an enemy attacking the stylist’s ward defeats her Parry, she may pay a 2 Initiative surcharge to force him to apply the attack to her.```

[buoyant summit]

oh hi topple

since we have last spoken Regal Fang has undergone a number of revisions and is now going to be split between Clashing All The Time and Defend Other tech

[buoyant summit]

lol

You know

This is perhaps

Weird

Charm that lets you reflexively move with a person you just Defend-Othered?

[marsh garden]

calendula type beat

dunno how strong or weak it'd be, but i do like it

[buoyant summit]

cocks head Don't you mean Orchis?

[marsh garden]

er

yeah

that one

dunno why i was thinking of cal

[buoyant summit]

lol

[velvet raft]

Final lineup of starting charms for ex-mortalgame

[tulip folio]

Yay, Speared Boar Struggle

[velvet raft]

I prioritized Chitinous Centipede Shell because of it

[tulip folio]

...I wonder if stripping an enemy of a point of willpower and giving an ally a point of willpower are equally valuable as far as the systme is concerned...hmm...

[tulip folio]

Makes sense. Good cheap soak booster.

[velvet raft]

I'll probably also aim to nab Optimistic Security Practice soon for the same reason

I figure OSP + Hostility Acceptance Technique + Chitin gives me some decent defense against witherings that I allow in for the counter

[velvet raft]

Realized that Feathered Cloak Trick says you turn into a raven, crow, or corvid, and so that allows me to get fancy. Lanying’s birb form.

[fierce star]

I still need to do a butcherbird lunar at some point.

shrikes are some of my favorite birds

also that is a very pretty corvid

[velvet raft]

A rufous treepie

I wanted yellow or orange for a journeys

[fierce star]

oooh

[velvet raft]

Oh god Legendary Size shrike

[fierce star]

:>

"Oh you're playing a vlad the impaler expy in exalted, they're going to be an Abyssal then?" ":>" "W--h--how do you even pronounce that" ":>"

[bleak hazel]

Rival's bird form is a jackdaw, because at the time I made him there was a jackdaw family nesting in my house's chimney-pot who would frequently wake me up by dropping sticks down the flue that ran next to my head

[velvet raft]

Nice

[fierce star]

pft

[spiral cosmos]

I like blue jays :) I see them outside my balcony daily

[fierce star]

I got mugged by a grackle once

I know this is gonna sound like a meme, but it was in a buc-ee's parking lot

[spiral cosmos]

grackles are shitheads

I love them so much

[velvet raft]

From now on any and all sids I have with FCT are going to have a form with the correct color-coding for their caste >_>

[fierce star]

like I am literally in the bucee's parking lot enjoying a brisket sandwich

and this motherfucking grackle lands on my sandwich and yoinks it out of my hand so it goes scattering all over the place

mugged by a goddamn bird in the buc-ee's parking lot

[spiral cosmos]

thats how grackles do !!!!

[tulip folio]

...oh hey, Magpies are Corvids.

That means I can do Sidereal Swooping Season on people.

notes down 'Brawl Sidereal who makes a lot of use of FCT'

[bleak hazel]

all the seagulls on the English coast are well trained in Bird Martial Arts and have stolen more sausage rolls and sandwiches out of my hands than I can remember

at one point one tucked his wings in and dove perfectly between the bars of the wrought iron fence I was sitting against entirely so he could get at my lunch, at which point fair enough he deserved it

I wouldn't try something like that for a £3.50 sandwich

[spiral cosmos]

love corvids

They're so smart

[bleak hazel]

now imagining Feather Drenched sitting in a camping chair and reading a bird identification guide with malicious intent because she refuses to be blindsided by a magpie or one of the colourful jays ever again

[velvet raft]

What’s the most horrible animal that a lunar could hybridize with a shrike

Early voting is in on “pig”

[wise ocean]

Hippo

[fierce star]

You need something with some real natural sadism to it.

Dolphin.

[prisma sun]

wasp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klfTQvqHe3s

[velvet raft]

These are all good suggestions

I wonder what would happen if we combined all of these most evil animals to create the most evil animal of them all

||It turns out it’s man||

[lunar magnet]

If you hybridize it with a hippo, you can also do the pun of being a hippo-grif.

[velvet raft]

True, true

[buoyant summit]

This is the most Texan sentence I've ever heard

"Yeah I was robbed at beakpoint by a grackle in a buc-ee's parking lot"

[empty creek]

https://tenor.com/view/futurama-scary-door-door-gif-4069501

[velvet raft]

glass breaking noises

[spiral cosmos]

https://tenor.com/view/death-grips-ride-mc-crying-gif-13590087

[buoyant summit]

Cost: 6m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 2
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Decisive-only, Mastery
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: Regal Fang Form

The duelist knows the moment her fangs shall sink into vein and belly. That time is not yet, but it is soon.

When the stylist hits an enemy with a decisive attack, before rolling damage she may spend 2 Initiative to increase his onslaught penalty by 1, up to a maximum additional onslaught penalty of (Presence/2).
```Are there any other charms that let you spend init to increase target's onslaught?

[buoyant summit]

I am putting together a playlist for the vibes of Regal Fang lmao

[tulip folio]

...man, finally worked out how to square 'Need 1 more charm for World-Devouring Warlord' and 'It could do with more charms that care about Adversary'.

Giving it a Parry-Shifted version of Harmony in Opposition Stance would work really well for it. 'Focuses on a single guy so it works with adversary' + 'Defensive trick for a defensive style' + 'adds a little more soft taunt by giving you bonus init when the adversary attacks someone other than you'.

[velvet raft]

Pnet I’m struggling to come up with a good WSAV condition

I feel like it should probably extend out of my principles, but nothing good is coming to mind

[fierce star]

'Heroically'

[tulip folio]

Exhilarating Nemesis Exultation
Cost: - (+4m, 1wp); Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 2
Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: World-Devouring Warlord Stance
Polished to a mirror-shine, the glory of her foes only serves to reflect the mastery of the Warlord.

When the stylist uses Antagonist-Naming Technique, she may pay a four-mote, one willpower surcharge. If she does, she may always apply her full Parry against attacks made by her Antagonist, ignoring all penalties, and rerolls up to (Appearance/2 dice) that show a failure on rolls to Rush him or oppose attempts for him to hide him in combat. Finally, whenever her Antagonist gains Initiative, the stylist gains a single point of Initiative, unless he gained that Initiative by attacking her.

[fierce star]

ooh, that's spicy.

[velvet raft]

… honestly that might work

[fierce star]

I like short and succinent WSAVs.

[velvet raft]

Running it by my ST

[tulip folio]

It seemed like it kinda fit the area WDW wants without just being like 'another counterattack charm'

[tulip folio]

Not 100% sure how good it is for a Sid as their base 'parry penalty reducer' is 'Remove half penalty or full penalty if the other guy's action has increased TN' and already being Willpower Hungry.

[buoyant summit]

We are Making A Tengese Earth Deeb

It Shall Be Fun

[light olive]

Yop.

[buoyant summit]

We now have to make said Tengese Earth Deeb's artifact sword to run by the ST in case we get picked lmao

Are there any MAs that particularly like themselves some Resistance?

[wise ocean]

Toad

[buoyant summit]

Cool

Thankies

I ask cuz I realize 'hey this really aggressive semi-Clash-focused sword MA might like the user being able to take a punch'

[wise ocean]

in general all MAs are fond of resistance or dodge, to one degree or another

[tulip folio]

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kDLkPGMsPUJBVuvoYyh7i74FU9bMntE5bR4z928Hbyk/edit?usp=sharing Okay, finished updating this.

[buoyant summit]

hell yeahhhhh

[buoyant summit]

Baller as fuck, and also I have literally accidentally made its mirror style

[tulip folio]

Exhilarating Nemesis Exultation is the new charm, with Aegis and Harmony gaining new 'on antagonist' effects.

People didn't like 'Hey, you know fae stuff so you're good at vs fae stuff' with Aegis so instead it's now 'Hey, antagonist. FUCK YOUR MAGIC'

[buoyant summit]

Regal Fang is about the central contradiction inherent in the fact that we tell stories to ourselves about certain weapons having a noble character while they get just as coated in the blood and guts and shit of the battlefield, like how the stag's antlers are a noble crown, despite existing to wound and lock with another buck's over the right to procreate

And it was made by Lunars to fight raksha

XD

[tulip folio]

Hah. While Warlord is basicly 'All power flows from the barrel of a gun' conceptually.

Political power? Yeah, that comes from Force

Social Influence? Yeah, that needs Force.

Economic power? Yeah, that needs Force.

Going 'Wow, nice concept...it's also still all about Violence in the end'

[buoyant summit]

We should collab on a fic of a World-Devouring Raksha vs a Regal Fang Lunar in the First Age

That'd go hard

and be extremely Metal Gear Solid

God our styles even do opposite like

'narrative focus' tech...

This is such a cool and weird coincidence holy shit <XD

[tulip folio]

Yay

[buoyant summit]

Iki this style fucks severely

It's kinda incredible

I wish to give you the highest compliment I can bestow

I want to fight a character using your style

[tulip folio]

Hah, nice. One of the things I wanted to do with it is that...it's not an evil style. It's kinda easy to take 'hey, all that matters in the end is force' and go 'Oh, it's a Bully Style'.

[buoyant summit]

As in like I want to fight a boss that is using this style

Oh it doesn't feel inherently evil

It feels

[tulip folio]

It's more 'What is the use of your ideals if you can't act on them', if that makes sense?

[buoyant summit]

Kinda, yeah?

Admittedly practitioners of this style seem predisposed to certain set of those ideals, but

[tulip folio]

That said, tis' also 'smug asshole' because Fae and all Fae are some amount of smug asshole 😛

[buoyant summit]

Oh god this style is so beautifully smug

Behemoth-Army Invocation just

I Parry With My Ego

I know it's not a parry effect but like

It's literally "Spiritually I am 30 feet tall"

[tulip folio]

Yeah, I didn't want all the effects to be just 'parry good' or 'counterattack'. It's a defensive style but I wanted a variety of defence.

[buoyant summit]

Yeeee, that definitely comes through

Wanna give Regal Fang a gander if you're possessed of the time?

[tulip folio]

Sure. I'm a bit sick but that just means I'm not moving away from my chair any time soon.

[buoyant summit]

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xEuM0kG4Hqhwd82OPgOHosMEglVTvDO5OvrTVMZgW6E/edit?usp=sharing

Heeeeere ya go!

[tulip folio]

Violent Competition Display is a lot of fun

[buoyant summit]

Thank you lol

[tulip folio]

It would be very funny to see a full 'I knew you'd do that, so I did this!' setup

With 'I delay for a bonus' + 'Well, I boost my effective init to dodge your delay!' (With stuff like VBOS)

[tulip folio]

It looks very fun. My one comment is on the capstone. Any particualr reason it asks for Knife or Sai? The style until then hasn't asked for particular off-hand weapons.

[buoyant summit]

Fuck, forgor to edit that

[buoyant summit]

used to be very locked to sword & dagger

No longer a feature and simply forgor to edit

It is now a Mastery effect!

[velvet raft]

I’m not entirely clear what the “adding them as bonus dice” here means. Does it mean that penalties ignored count up to the dice cap? That would kinda suck, if so. Does it mean you get bonus dice equal to the penalty on top of ignoring it?

[coral wraith]

the latter

[tulip folio]

It inverts it. Going 'Hey, that -2? now a +2!'

[coral wraith]

It's like Berserker

[velvet raft]

Hey that’s really good!

Gonna have to put that on my shortlist

[tulip folio]

I do find it funny that Alchs and Sids both have 'It's a shit job but someone's got to do it' charms that just let them Do Labor Better.

[velvet raft]

Almost tragic that max-stamina sids don’t get HLs with wound penalties

Not because it’d be efficient, just for showing off reasons

[velvet raft]

Physical rolls also notably include fighting so it’s a superb general penalty-reducer for combat

[tulip folio]

5m is a lot but there's worse costs if you're dealing with Serious Penalties.

-2 through +2 is a 4 die swing

And only the +2 counts towards cap, not the 'removing -2'

I think my only real 'not entirely sure' with World-Devouring Warlord is the Stance I did for it.

[tulip folio]

World-Devouring Warlord Form
Cost: 8m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 1
Type: Simple
Keywords: Form
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Antagonist-Naming Technique, Sword-Stunting Methodology
The Stylist takes on the imperious, forceful mien of the Sword, the supremacy of force over all other tools. Armies of Gossamer illusion form about her, preludes to the inevitable victory of the Sword.

The stylist gains the following benefits:
-She adds (Appearance) bonus dice on attack rolls of Counterattacks, Clashes and Slaughter
-Foes treat the area out to Close range of her as moving through a Battle Group (Difficult Terrain and costing 1 initiative to move through).
-The supremacy of the Sword denies Battle Groups any benefit from Might against her.
-When an enemy battle group suffers Dissolution, the stylist may reflexively make an attack to Slaughter, as her phantasmal armies become all too real to the fleeing survivors.

Special activation rules: When the Wanderer wins Join Battle or a Strategic Warfare roll, she may reflexively assume World-Devouring Warlord Form.

This was one of my first charms desigend for it but I'm not 100% sure.

[buoyant summit]

What Essence would you make an Evo be that grants a battlegroup of mortals Might 1 for a scene as long as the one using the evocation either is within close range or issues an order to them every turn?

[bleak hazel]

I think you could fairly easily make that E1

maybe E2 if you have other stuff to go before that, since E2 is where the various Celestial training charms are and they tend to grant situational Might

but those are also permanent and you can pay for them before fights, so depending on how you set it up you can probably squeeze it in lower

[limpid badge]

https://www.tumblr.com/ckejack/734615754734026752/rscreaming-shut-the-fuck-up-over-and-over-again

Official Correspondence of the Bureau of Secrets

rscreaming "Shut the Fuck Up" over and over again at my secretary as he slowly morphs into a lunar assassin and only makes me angrier

Tumblr · Nov 21, 2023, 4:29 PM

[bleak hazel]

I always forget about the existence of the Chejop Kejak dril account and then become much more cheerful when I am reminded

[buoyant summit]

Oh that is funny

"Lunar attempts to build themselves specifically to kill Chejop, fails" is a hilarious story for a previous incarnation tbh

[velvet raft]

Is Walker In Darkness the most Four Horsemen-coded of the Deathlords?

With his traveling Shadowland and whatnot

“And hell followed him”

[prisma sun]

Four Dogman

[marsh garden]

I'd say the dowager gives me more of that specific uncaring mythic herald of the end vibe, but the walker is definitely a close runner up in my mind

[spiral cosmos]

walker does a good job as a dude who brings omens i think

i wish that would've gone further into the charm set

[marsh garden]

yeah

[spiral cosmos]

in general i wish there was less mirrors, more deathknight stuff, and like... less individual deathlord charms and more a general sort of deathlordiness

like the general notion of being ennobled in death and a vampire lord type motherfucker

all abyssals have this really archetypal immortal ghost-emperor, tyrant-necromancer shit in them, and individual deathlord shit rocks and i love it, but i think they kinda needed more of the former

[tulip folio]

Abyssal Occult having less 'This is a Solar Charm But Goth' and more 'Hello, I am Bob The Lich, I am here to get all the Evil Necromantic Lore' would be fun.

[spiral cosmos]

right

[tulip folio]

...I wonder what level of necromantic working it is to make a food plague that turns every mortal that eats it into zombies under your command. Asking for my buddy Kel'Thuzad.

[marsh garden]

lore does have some amount of this, it's just not enough

[spiral cosmos]

it's kind of a structural problem

past edition abyssal charm sets had their big issues but they were largely more in this direction

[marsh garden]

i just wish they had ways to more functionally cosplay Being A Ghost-King or fucked up vampire charms

[spiral cosmos]

3e made a very conscious move to just go in on the mirrors

i did not like this at the time and i don't like it now

[marsh garden]

i hate it so much

i like everything new that's there

i just want more new

[spiral cosmos]

i tend to not be that loud about it because while i don't owe the friend behind that choice being silent on criticism or everything, we're honest with each other, there's like, a really slippery slope of fans taking shit you say and running wild with it

[marsh garden]

that's fair

[tulip folio]

Yeah, 100%

[marsh garden]

i talk shit because my voice changes nothing and i just want everything i like to be perfect

harder when your opinions actually matter

[spiral cosmos]

i wouldn't say my opinions matter broadly but there's a type of person who will immediately take any opportunity to stir up shit to every corner of the internet they can

[tulip folio]

Yeah so I might have to put my mod hat on for a moment and go 'Please people, don't do that sort of shit. We want pilotnet to be a place people can talk freely without worry about people stirring up shit over personal opinions and casual comments'.

[marsh garden]

i don't think anyone does that here?

at least not in this thread

[tulip folio]

They don't from my experience but it doesn't hurt to spell it out, just in case.

[velvet raft]

Pondering chain-and-armor mortification builds

And using brawl for offense, but melee for defense

[marsh garden]

that sounds kinda brutal on price

any reason you wouldn't just be doing the straightforward thing and running brawl offense res defense?

[limpid badge]

yaaaay doing the job

anyways

exalteds

i would love more weird fucked up ghost charms for my bloody hand

because she deserves to have more effects for her ghostregeon

[marsh garden]

i too just want charms that let me turn into a ghost

infernals get it, even

[velvet raft]

Kinda just pondering the comparison with say Res or Dodge

[spiral cosmos]

abyssal resistance is extremely effective

[velvet raft]

Ye

I guess Melee has counterattacks, mainly

[marsh garden]

i suppose melee's also the only way to get str to hit/parry

but that's probably not worth it

it's rather a shame that chain-and-armor doesn't list the chains as counting for any type of weapon

which i think you've talked about before lol

[velvet raft]

Yeah, if you want that it’s best to use melee in place of brawl

Just pondering builds

I do find it weird that Abyssal Melee can do strength with medium weapons, while brawl is limited to heavy weapons

[marsh garden]

i believe it's because there aren't any native medium brawl weapons

but it's pretty painful when there's literally an in-splat one

[velvet raft]

There also aren’t any native heavy brawl weapons! XD

[chilly sluice]

would making it an artifact attunement bonus be fine potentially?
to make them count as whips, or fighting chains or something

[marsh garden]

i think improvised are usually heavy

which is where that one comes in

[velvet raft]

They’re all light, which incidentally, you can’t use with strength either

[marsh garden]

yeah...

[velvet raft]

No strength-based Smashfists for you

[marsh garden]

i have no idea, but i'd be willing to pay for that

[marsh garden]

also no natural weapons

[velvet raft]

FISTS ONLY

[marsh garden]

which infernals get

[prisma sun]

Depends on the size I think

[velvet raft]

Yep, Infernals are the best Smashfist users

[prisma sun]

Hitting someone with Patrick's house isnt dex

[marsh garden]

the size is light voy

all native brawl weapons are light

[prisma sun]

https://tenor.com/view/patrick-star-smash-gif-19642208

[chilly sluice]

doing Live Wire with the armor chains seems like it could be neat
with that caveat

[marsh garden]

yeah

[velvet raft]

That’s an improvised weapon, which topple mentioned

And yes Live Wire chains would be rad

[marsh garden]

fighting chains for centipede, or possibly throne shadow if you want to go full Dark Lord

and be the menacing black-armored tyrant sitting bored on their throne

[spiral cosmos]

chain wire..........

[marsh garden]

going "you aren't worth my time. go, my minions."

[velvet raft]

Especially since Live Wire is the rare heavy armor style

[marsh garden]

(and then just killing them yourself anyway because it's funny)

yeah it's what, live wire white reaper earth dragon?

[spiral cosmos]

i've been toying a bit w/an abyssal melee rewrite that mostly just restructures things, and has a sort of greater focus on the soul-drinking fuckery and like... delaying your actions then walloping ppl rly hard

[wise ocean]

I had Plans for throne shadow resistance necromancy abyssal a bit ago but never quite carried through with it because they're Not A PC

[marsh garden]

sad

it does sound fun

[spiral cosmos]

i mean i say rewrite but it's just shuffling some structure and writing new charms that i'd enjoy seeing

[marsh garden]

writing new charms is cool

[velvet raft]

See, I have a personal preoccupation with CAAM

The best non-dex way to do it that I’ve thought of is to use melee, and then also have Bear and/or Mantis style for grappling

[wise ocean]

it is fun, I just couldn't think of situations where I could aura farm on a throne while my nephwrack minions Lefty and Righty beat people up as I laugh cruelly as a player character

excellent boss for STs though

[velvet raft]

But that’s expensive

[bleak hazel]

need to find a nephwrack-equivalent minion that you can theoretically make with Corpse-Engine of Annihilation

shame the only statblock we have for those is an extremely impractical fight for PCs because it has 40HL, soakbeast soak and legendary size

so everyone will be there forever

[wise ocean]

simply develop the MA combo that one-shots it

[marsh garden]

combine that shit with the See My House awareness charm

[wise ocean]

and the phantasmagoria performance charm, yup

[spiral cosmos]

flock camera technique

[marsh garden]

god i love grotesque phantasmagoria

it's very simple

but the flavor makes it work

and also the fact that it's a direct damage charm in performance tickles me

[wise ocean]

walk into abyssal's house
declare we'll destroy him today
the walls immediately start screaming and weeping blood
jumped from the shadows by two nephwracks while he does the zenos throne pose

it's so funny and yet

[spiral cosmos]

activate flickering image strike to make a surprise attack
A TEST OF YOUR REFLEXES

[marsh garden]

oh right, i wanted to make some corpse-engines

i should go do that

e3 soon maybe (lol)

[spiral cosmos]

i've said this before but i think like a solid half of the stormblood-era zenos hate wouldn't have happened if they just had the play-someone-else tech ready then so you played him when he dogwalked your camp in ala mhigo

wouldn't have fixed the deeper issues with that expac's writing but i think he'd have annoyed people less

[bleak hazel]

I need to stat up a couple of different Corpse-Engines since Crimson is walking around with 1d3+1 of those things at any given time and if I tell a PC raid to fight two thousand corpse goliaths at once they are legally allowed to mail me a pipe bomb

[wise ocean]

probably
as done currently, it produces this awkward effect where if you're playing tank he just straight-up can't touch you And Then You Autolose, which feels bad

[marsh garden]

i don't play ff14 but that does sound peak

[wise ocean]

honestly I'd just rip the cybernetica portfolio

default corpse engine is a Thanatar

this means you need domitar, vorax, and arlatax

[bleak hazel]

I was mostly cribbing various Nid big beasts but that also works

Arlatax it is

arlatax and his ursarax ducklings

[velvet raft]

Unless you have a medicine Sid in which case letting them KO a TCG is mandatory

[bleak hazel]

oh yeah, absolutely

only pro necromancers allowed, get these script kiddie constructs out of here

[next niche]

... okay Misc finally dragged me in here hi fellow exalt nerds

[marsh garden]

gret

[next niche]

someone was doing some abyssal stuff I heard-

[velvet raft]

I’ve been contemplating chain and armor mortification

[bleak hazel]

Vix has also homebrewed about half of Abyssal Melee 2 so I figured I would throw her at the various abyssalizing discussions

[marsh garden]

oh sick

[velvet raft]

The funny thing about Abyssal Brawl is that it really doesn’t have that much grapple tech

[next niche]

with Misc's help because Misc is great

[marsh garden]

it just has like four charms that scrungle you

[velvet raft]

It’s got a really good attack charm for grapplers, and the legendary size charm, the one where you throw people really far, and … I can’t remember any others

In fairness you don’t need grapple-specific charms for savaging

[next niche]

but yes lol
a mutual friend of ours introduced me like... 2 years ago and it was like introducing an invasive species somewhere i had no defenses
sooo now ive been working on an abyssal melee rewrite
and uhh hi

[marsh garden]

love your art by the way

[next niche]

oh mine?

[marsh garden]

also blood-drinking palm has further benefits on grapple

yeah

[next niche]

Thank you!

[velvet raft]

Ye it’s good for savaging

[next niche]

i do also draw this is tru

[wise ocean]

welcome to the gang vix

I don't know if Misc has actually lancerfied you yet but if not we'll have to get on that

[bleak hazel]

I have not, Vix has resistance to mechs

[next niche]

i was mostly dragged here for Exalted chat I confess, I am the world's only trans woman who's kinda eh on mecha

[marsh garden]

lmao

[velvet raft]

Honestly this is funky but given grapple melee weapons exist maybe I should just brew up some custom melee charms for that

[bleak hazel]

just skip the accuracy booster because Excellent Spook is already a crazy boost to decisives/gambits there

[marsh garden]

honestly? you could just do the schwifty thing infernal war did

stealing lunars' gimmick

and just make it like

[velvet raft]

I know I don’t need Chains to have a corresponding statblock to write about her but it fills me with joy

[marsh garden]

brawl or resistance, with chain-and-armor Charms as the alt prereqs

[next niche]

something something Implacable Mecha Resistance Technique charm

[marsh garden]

Contemptuous Warstrider Disassembly...

[next niche]

see that's so much better

thank you

[velvet raft]

Also I kinda like her having melee + martial arts just aesthetically

[marsh garden]

yeah that's fair

which arts has chains got?

[velvet raft]

Since she is A Warrior

Mainly Bear

[marsh garden]

makes sense

scrunch

[velvet raft]

She would also like Mantis

But

That’s a lot

[marsh garden]

i wanted to eventually do MAs on Hope, but i looked at his xp budget and shat myself

brawl it is

not exactly a trial for me, though, considering it has the charm named Life-Annihilating Castigation, and it does exactly what it says it does

[velvet raft]

… would a melee charm that specifically allows itself to be combined with MA charms when doing a grapple attack be too much, I wonder

Probably

[wise ocean]

this castigation really do be annihilating life

[marsh garden]

i like Buster Wolf

what can i say

[marsh garden]

i think absolutely, yeah, since it's just stapling solar melee on

[next niche]

I would say so?

[marsh garden]

i do wish abyssals had more versatile Charms

[next niche]

versatile charms for non-siddies are in the realm of ancillary thematic thing that you can't really get in MAs otherwise.

[marsh garden]

but blanket permission to drop the whole kit is terrifying

[next niche]

or that don't really combo with MA stuff

[coral wraith]

Oh hey Vix!!

Good to see you there

[next niche]

Hello!

Misc dragged me in here finally.

[coral wraith]

It was inevitable!

[velvet raft]

It was foretold

[wise ocean]

Gang Collection Method

[coral wraith]

Best Friend's Server Method

[velvet raft]

It’s okay I don’t care about Lancer anymore either

[next niche]

with mentions of someone else doing abyssal melee rework as the straw that broke the camel's back lmao

[velvet raft]

I played a campaign! I had a reasonably good time!

[marsh garden]

lmao

[next niche]

yes now i have more places to deluge in my exalted doodles

[coral wraith]

Best Friend's Server Invitation* even

[prisma sun]

Lancer was fun its just kind of a dead game

[coral wraith]

[marsh garden]

i haven't really looked for a lancer campaign recently, but i would enjoy playing more screatures

[coral wraith]

I feel like dead game is such a strange way to descrbe a tabletop game

[next niche]

fuck i really need to finish that wyld behemoth sketch

[marsh garden]

behemoths...

[next niche]

behemoths :)